Enhancement of green upconversion luminescence of Yb3+/Tb3+ co-doped BiOBr nanosheets and its potential applications in photocatalysis

In this work, a series of Yb3+/Tb3+ co-doped BiOBr nanosheets were synthesized by a simple solvothermal method, and the effect of Tb3+ and Yb3+ doping on the up-conversion (UC) luminescence was investigated. Under the excitation of 980 nm, BiOBr: Yb3+/Tb3+ nanosheets displayed emission bands at 494, 544, 584 and 622 nm arise from transitions D-5(4) -> F-7(J) (J = 6, 5, 4, 3) of Tb3+ ions, respectively. Furthermore, the concentration dependence of UC luminescence was comprehensively explored, and the BiOBr:15%Yb3+/3%Tb3+ nanosheets exhibited the most outstanding luminescent properties by the cooperative energy transfer. Moreover, the degradation rate of RhB by Yb3+/Tb3+ co-doped BiOBr reaches 98.9% for 30 min under full spectral irradiation, and 51.7% for 5 h under 980 nm irradiation, respectively. This work proves that Yb3+/Tb3+ co-doped BiOBr nanosheets have excellent green UC emission and have potential application in the field of near infrared activated photocatalysts.

Automated summary

In this study, Yb3+/Tb3+ co-doped BiOBr nanosheets were synthesized and their up-conversion luminescence was investigated. The results showed that the Yb3+/Tb3+ co-doped BiOBr nanosheets exhibited outstanding green up-conversion emission and had potential application in the field of near infrared activated photocatalysts.